New Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppies!

We are the proud new owners (for now, anyway) of six brand new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies! They were born this afternoon and they are so tiny and cute. We have 3 tri-color and 1 blenheim female and one of each male. I can’t tell yet if any are smaller than the others, but that will show as they eat and grow, I suppose. We have 6-10 weeks before they leave us to go home with their new owners =(. It’s pretty easy right now while they only nurse for sustenance because Tori cleans up after them. When they start eating puppy food, six cute little puppies will quickly become a pain in the you-know-what and we will actually be happy to get them sold. But for now, they are cute and tiny and sweet!

At the Beach!

DSC03751
Originally uploaded by gregnes99

We just got back from a vacation with Greg's entire family in Charleston, SC. We had a wonderful time with his family. The boys really enjoyed playing with their older cousins and I think Ben's vocabulary doubled because he learned everybody's names.

I also really enjoyed the ocean like I haven't been able to for a while. We were able to float on the waves past the spot where they were breaking. Not only was it very relaxing, but it also reminded me of Mombasa with my Mom. She loved to go out beyond the breaking waves during high tide and just float, and I loved doing that with her and talking. It also reminds me of my friend Rinnie, though too, doing the same thing with her. I also have this vague memory of singing "Lady in Red" out in the Indian Ocean with Rin -- did that really happen?

Our life

We're getting stuff done in our house! But, we had to move out of our
bedroom. Our guest bed feels mighty small, and I've slept some on the top
bunk in Luke's room. I've been feeling like I was missing Greg, so last
night I moved back to the double bed. I was feeling that lack of adult
companionship. I'm actually kind of looking forward to getting back to work
and away from my kids a little! I feel awful saying it, but I know others
feel the same way at times.

Back to our house renovations. We're getting a tub and shower, plus wall, in
our bathroom. The other room with the biggest change is our living room. I
wanted it to be PERFECTLY clean before I took pictures, but unless I wait
until nighttime (bad pictures) it doesn't stay clean long enough for that,
so I just took them anyway.

Next Saturday we are leaving for vacation with Greg's family going close to
Charleston! The day after we get back, I have to start back to work, and my
cousin Clara gets married -- wish we could be there!

Summer is also birthday central in our world. For Greg's birthday we had a
little party, where I tried to invite people Greg would want, which included
Xavier and Kara. We need to do more with them. Timmy's birthday was last
week. Then, my birthday comes soon (although, it can stop if it wants) and
then Peter and Luke in September -- I can't believe Luke'll be three soon!
Heather and Matt have July and August birthdays too.

I just wanted to have future record of this. . .

I copied this off of Lydia's old blog:

Monday, January 08, 2007
Pray For My New Nephew- Benjamin
I am mainly writing now to ask for your prayers for my little nephew. He was born today by cesarean section. He is my sister's second boy. He is premature so he is having a hard time breathing and has been put in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Please pray that he will be able to breath enough on his own so that they do not have to put him on a breathing machine. Also pray that he stays healthy and does not get any infection, because when babies are that little its very easy for them to get sick. My sister has been in the hospital on bed rest since Dec. 20th so its been a stressful time for the whole family. And because Benjamin is in the NICU Esther does not get to see him or hold him.

Friday, January 12, 2007
Update on Benjamin
Here are a few pictures of Ben. This first one is of him on the breathing machine they have him on right now.

This one is of him just on oxygen, when he looked the best. This is what we want him to be on :) He looks so much more comfortable.

Ben is still doing about the same. They ended up having to put him on a respirator for 24hrs but then they were able to take it off. He did fine without any machines for about 6hrs but now they have him back on a partially assisted breathing machine. The doctors are still being positive about the situation and saying he may be able to come home next week. So please keep praying. Esther came home today so that has been good, but its also hard for her to leave Ben in the hospital.

Jan. 24, 2007
I can thankfully say that little Benjamin is home and healthy. He has been home for about a week, after a ten day stay in the NICU. I left before he came home, but I did get to hold him a couple times in the hospital. He is so small...was 5lbs 2oz and now he is 5lbs 6oz. I will post a picture from the hospital. He is still having a harder time controlling his body temperature so you can keep praying that will be stable. Esther has to check it about 4 times a day to make sure he is staying warm, but that's nothing compared to the problems he was having two weeks ago:)

Puppy Needs a Home

Puppy at 10 weeks old.

Tori (dame; blenheim) and Kaiser (sire; tri-color)

We still have one puppy left. I think he’s 14 weeks old now. At this point, we just need to find a home for him, so we’re offering to give him to anybody we know that wants him. (If we don’t know you, we’ll have to charge $100 to make sure you’re serious about wanting him and will take care of him.) That’s a really good deal – he’s a $1000 dog! E-mail us if you need more info, or leave a comment.

He’s mostly black with tan and white on him too. He’s a purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that is ready to be registered CKC. He has been to the vet three times and got all his puppy shots/deworming. He’ll weigh about 20 pounds full grown (Dad weighs 22, Mom weighs 18). He doesn’t bark. His breed and his parents are great with kids, aren’t yippy dogs even though they are small, and just love to cuddle on the couch with us whenever they can. As far as I’m concerned, their only downfall is that they shed.

Ben's Surgery

Last Wednesday Ben had his first surgery under general anesthesia -- WOOHOO!!

He got tubes in his ears and they took out his adenoids. The ENT also did another bronchoscopy - the last one was done by a pulmonologist. Dr. St. Charles showed me pictures and explained each one. He decided not to fix Ben's subglottal stenosis because they said his airway was only 30% smaller than it was supposed to be and he would grow out of it. Next, Dr. St. Charles said Ben has mucus in the spot where his bronchial tubes branch off into his lungs. The pulmonologist consulted with him on this and they decided to prescribe high dose amoxicillin for 3 weeks. Finally, he showed me the picture of his esophagus, which looked sort of bumpy. He said it was inflamed, likely from reflux. He prescribed continued Prevacid (we had already been doing the Prevacid) and said we need to see a GI doctor, but we would talk about that again at his follow-up visit in 3 weeks. He seems to be feeling fine and has acted pretty much the same since the surgery. Hopefully, once everything is healed up, he will feel even better than he did before.

Ben did really well. He slept on my lap afterwards, which was so sweet, because he never does that anymore. He was really cute too, because he was hanging on to his favorite stuffed lion. I wish I'd taken a picture now, but didn't even think about it then, of course!

Movie You Have to See

If you guys haven't seen August Rush, you need to. It was a feel good movie without raunchiness (PG) and a very touching story. Not really a "chick flick" in the true sense of the word, meaning not a romance (although it did have a strong element of romance), but definitely not a "guy" movie.

http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/

According to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426931/plotsummary: A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

The story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger, August uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.

Happy Easter!

My kids are growing up!

Ben now says five words: bye, uh-oh, ball, fan, hi, all done, mmmm (as in yummy). And he does signs for bye-bye (of course), all done, and more (when he feels like it). His personality is really showing up. He seems to be a boy of extremes -- when he's good, he's very, very good and when he's bad he's horrid. He's stubborn and strong-willed, yet gets very upset when you just barely tap his hand to discipline him. He loves balls and food. And he's very mad at me right now because I won't let him touch the computer =).

Luke surprises us pretty much every day with a new word or concept. We just got bunk beds for the boys (though Ben is still in a crib) and Luke is very excited about his big boy bed. Of course, he's very into his independence: "Lukie do it by hisself!", and being a "big boy." We're working a little on potty training, but not hardcore.

Re: Hello!

Well, Ben has to get tubes in his ears. April 2nd is the day. He will
get tubes and have another bronchoscopy with a different kind of
scope. The ENT doctor said if they could fix the throat with a laser
quickly while they're in there, they will. If he needs some other sort
of surgery, they'll have to do that at a different time. I'm hoping
that the tubes in his ears will help him feel better and even hear
better, so maybe he'll be able to communicate more! He's doing much
better in terms of motor development. He can crawl and get himself all
over the place, though he prefers to cruise. He tries to take a couple
steps without holding on and will play with toys without holding on to
something for balance. My baby boy is turning into a toddler!

Greg's 2nd Award

Proud of my man! Check him out in the article below:

Chattanooga Honors Top Cops for Going Above and Beyond
by WDEF

Several police officers have ended up on the wrong side of the law recently.

Here are some on the right side.

Click here to read more on our site

A drop in the bucket

Compassion International has started a blogging campaign, so I thought I'd take this opportunity . . . I chose to sponsor a child with Compassion International starting when I was in college because I could sponsor a child in Uganda, where I grew up. The cost (~$30 per month) feels like a drop in the bucket to me, especially when I don't feel like I can contribute extra for special projects. However, I know it doesn't feel like a drop in the bucket to the little Ugandan girl that we sponsor or to her family. She gets school fees (education's not free in Uganda), good nutrition, and spiritual mentorship. It literally changes her life forever. I wonder that we don't do more. . . If you don't sponsor a child in the 3rd world, you should. A drop in the bucket for us makes the difference of a lifetime for a child.

Greg's Valentine's Day present

Greg got a white boxer puppy for Valentine's Day. His name is Max and he's so cute!

New puppies

You can check out pictures of Tori's puppies at my friend Alli's Flickr page.

Another dr. visit for Ben

I'm taking Ben to get a CAT scan tomorrow morning, just to make sure his huge head is not related to his developmental delays.

Last week, I took him to the ENT. He gave us Prevacid and Nasonex, saying that his throat problems could be caused by reflux and that Ben had fluid in his ears that needs to clear up in the next six weeks, or he'll need tubes.

Pray for the little guy . . . and us. I believe he'll be fine in the end, but I need to trust God no matter what happens.

Sad news

Poor Greg had to take Ike to the vet this morning to be put to sleep. He was 10-1/2 years old. He had stopped eating and drinking much and couldn't get up anymore or control his bladder. Anna graciously cared for him while we were gone, cleaning up his messes, and dragging him back into the house at the point when he wouldn't get up anymore. It was sad, but obvious to us that Ike was absolutely miserable. He had the saddest eyes I've ever seen. I feel bad for him that we were gone and he had to live like that for a few days, poor boy.

Luke is a little confused. Not really sad, but doesn't understand. I keep telling him Ike's not coming back. I first told him Ike was going to the doctor and he asked if Ike was getting a shot, which I then realized wasn't good because I didn't want Luke to be scared that the same thing would happen to him if he went to the doctor and got a shot. So I said Daddy was taking him to the hospital, which Luke then equated to his trip to the ER, so I had to backtrack on that one too. I finally just told him he went to doggy heaven and isn't coming home. I'm just not quite sure how to explain that one!

New puppies

While we were gone to Orlando, Tori had four puppies, thanks to Anna Meiners. One of them died the next day, sadly, but it didn't look quite normal from the beginning, Anna said. So we have two red/white (blenheim) girls and one black (tricolor)boy. They're cute. I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

Lots of "Goings On"

We've been busy lately. We went to Orlando last week so I could go to a conference. We got to see Rinnie and her kids and had such fun going to Downtown Disney with Johnny, Kaki, and Ella. That was definitely THE highlight of our trip.

A chip of the old block

Luke is turning into a chip of the old block, the block being me (Esther). He's always talking about who he wants to come over to our house or who he wants to go see. He says "Alli come over," "Go Unc'a Petr's house." I love to see him enjoying the people that love him. Sometimes it's sad because he wants to go see Granmama and Granpapa and I wish he could. Today, as soon as he got back into the sanctuary from nursery, he whispered to me very shyly, "Go Matt's house." Matt was at church with us. What a sweetie!

Ben's Birthday

Ben turned one on Tuesday. We are waiting to celebrate until next weekend when Greg's parents will be up here, but my friend Alli surprised us with cupcakes when we got our kids together to play. Ben pretty much just ate icing.

An exciting Thursday night

What an exciting Thursday night we had! Luke got a hold of the bottle of children's vitamins AND got the childproof cap off. That was probably about 8pm. I didn't know it until 11pm when I saw children's Tylenol spilled on the floor, as he had also gotten the lid off that. I called poison control and they sent us to the emergency room. Greg was still working, so I took Ben to my friend Heather's and Greg met me at the hospital.

At the ER, they ended up taking his blood 3 times at two hour intervals, starting at about 4 hours from when he took the medicine. It took 1.5 hours to get the tests back. (They also informed us that Poison Control had called Family and Children's Services because there was so much time between when he got the meds and when I called.) I was there with Luke until 6 am, when his iron levels started to go down.

It was a bit scary for us (they called it an overdose) as his iron level was high the first time and higher the second; and scary for Luke as they kept coming back and drawing blood. I was awake the whole time and Luke didn't go to sleep either until 5am. Greg went home about 2:30, after the first iron level report, so at least one of us could get some sleep that night and then I could sleep the next day once he was awake.

Praise the Lord that everything was okay and don't trust the childsafe caps!

Luke sings his ABCs

Ben's Bronchoscopy

Ben had a bronchoscopy Wednesday. They said that his throat is pretty narrow right below his vocal cords, so we now have to go see an Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) doctor, who will do another kind of bronchoscopy with a different kind of scope and may be able to take care of the problem at that time with laser to burn off some of the extra tissue or trying to dilate his throat, which I don't know how they do that, but that's what they told me. Didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know. Don't know why they didn't send us to the ENT instead of the pulmonologist in the first place, but he's fine for now. The worst part, which is not bad compared to some of our other options, is that we have to go back and do that day all over again with starving the poor boy, sedating home, and making him uncomfortable for a few days. Oh, and his nose bled on my new shirt . . . bummer.

Aquarium Visit

I had to take a day off during the week last week because Greg had to work during the day. I took the boys to the aquarium with my friends Heather and Alli, and their kids Jonas, and Fuller. We had so much fun. It got me thinking: people sometimes think stay-at-home moms live a life of luxury because they are always out galavanting. NOT true! Stay-at-home moms are out galavanting to keep their kids occupied! Don't know why that thought occurred to me then, but that's when it did.

Johari Windows

Daniel and Tasha directed me to this website. It's pretty fun. The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference is built up. All you have to do is pick five/six words from a grid that apply to the person the window is about. Here's mine: http://kevan.org/johari?name=Deares'. Go there and pick some adjectives for me and start your own, too!

Ebola Update

The missionaries are all doing well at this point, thankfully. The

news from the district from yesterday is: "Total cases remain at 115,
the first time we've had no new cases or admissions. Praise God for a
respite. Deaths: 31. Spread: four highly suspicious cases in Fort
Portal, all are contacts from Bundibugyo. We agree with the advice
that contacts should stay put for 21 days to help contain the spread
of this disease, and we are doing so ourselves. So far Jonah's
family is fine, again a tribute to his care." There's an article
about the doctor who died and the Ebola outbreak at ABC News. The
other Ugandan doctor in the district has been discharged from the
hospital -- recovered!

The missionary doctor/mom posts on their blog (http://
paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/) every day, if you ever want to know and
have time to look. There are some interesting pictures from the
burial posted on their blog here: http://paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/

2007/12/bundibugyo-where-tears-never-run-dry.html We certainly need
to keep praying that the Lord would stop the spread and protect his
people. I don't know who to pray that he would protect -- it sounds
weird to choose some and not others.

Ebola Response Fund: http://whm.org/project?ID=11128

Luke dancing to Pete's b-boxing

A good weekend

This has been a good weekend. The kind that makes you sigh . . . when you have a free minute to sit down. Here's ten reasons why (in order of importance):
1. Ben started clapping today. (That's exciting news because the dr. is worried about him being further behind than he should be even as a preemie, and bringing his hands together is a milestone.)
2. Greg gave up some relaxation time to support me in my goals to exercise and get more sleep.
3. I exercised Friday and today. (I walked to Blockbuster today -- killed two birds with one stone!)
4. I got to take 2 2-hour naps. (Greg let me sleep instead of waking me up when he was supposed to.)
5. Heather is finally done with her volleyball season at Covenant, so she can hang out again in the evenings. They came over for dinner on Saturday.
6. Greg was off so we had the weekend together.
7. Greg bought me eggnog at Wal-mart! (He said, "I was going to buy you flowers, but I thought you'd appreciate this more.)
8. We actually finished a book in my Bible Study. (first time ever!)
9. Greg took the dogs to the vet and went to the grocery store -- usually my jobs.
10. Greg fixed the hot tub, all by himself -- I'm very proud.
Sigh . . .

Luke's pet peeve

Luke HATES to get a hair stuck in/on his hand. He yells "HAIR!" in a very whiney, loud voice until you get it off. I can't usually figure out what he's saying at first because it sounds like "here."

Tonight when he was in the bath I told him that tomorrow we are going to see Granmama and Granpapa and Auntie, and he said, "Wanna get out," and started climbing out. I had to try to explain that we are not going to see them until tomorrow, which means after he sleeps. "Noooooo!" he said.

Halloween 2007

We had such fun tonight. Luke, Ben, and I went over Alli's after I got home from work. We ordered pizza and put the boys in their costumes. Fuller was the man in the yellow hat.
Peter and Janet came over and Peter took Luke trick-or-treating with Damon and Fuller while Janet, Ben and I hung out with Alli, passing out candy. We weren't sure Luke would go happily or stay happy on the road, but he did!

This third picture is last year when we went to Alli's house too, but Luke was too little to trick-or-treat back then.

life nowadays

I have not been able to quite get back in the swing of things since we got back from Canada. I haven't been posting on my blog or reading anyone else's blog either. I've also been trying to go to bed earlier which doesn't leave me as much free time for stuff like that. I had been going to bed at midnight or later, and it's finally catching up to me -- I don't have the energy to do anything and have not been in a great mood. I've been aiming for Greg's suggestion: bed at 10 o'clock!

First entry for reading list

I started a new blog: childrensreadinglist.blogspot.com. The first book is Baby Loves.

Enjoying Reading with Luke

Luke has really started to enjoy stories. He will actually sit and listen to quite a long story. I'd kind of like to have a blog that tells what his favorite books are at which age. I may do that.

Tonight, I read him the Dr. Seuss book And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street. I was shocked when he listened quietly to the whole thing and then even more shocked when he asked me to read it again! I love books -- I would love it if Luke did too!

Back from Vacation

Well, we've been back from vacation for while (a week and a half), but still trying to get our lives back in order. Vacation was wonderful, but the last part with the wedding included lots of traveling, so we have been tired. British Columbia was beautiful (the picture is the view from our house there), mountains and ocean everywhere. Being with family was really wonderful too. We enjoyed staying in a house with Greg's two other siblings that have kids because our families all had the same basic needs. His parents and sister who was getting married stayed with a relative nearby. We miss them after a week of constant being together!

Luke had his 2nd birthday on Tuesday, September 25th. He's definitely growing up, doing lots of cute things. He tries to sing along with songs, his favorite being "Twinkle, twinkle little star," which he requests if I start singing something else. The other night when we tried to get him to eat his dinner, he said "it's yucky." It was hard not to laugh at that. He's started saying that one thing looks like something else he will name. He talks about 4 of his 5 cousins, including TC, Jojo, Macy, and Ella -- don't know why Aden gets left out.

The five finger prayer

I thought this was neat, especially for kids. It's called the Five Finger Prayer. I think I might use it with Luke. How To Pray

Pray for me and my toddler.

Pray for us! Luke is really trying my patience these days. A lot of the frustration comes from the fact that I don't know the best way to handle his disobedience. Each time I am required to make a decision: Is this one to ignore or discipline, and if discipline to what extent? I HATE making decisions and it stresses me out.

Luke's first football lesson

Greg and I had a date tonight and our friends Alli and Damon watched Luke and Ben. Fuller is not quite a year older than Luke and they love to play together. Check out the video Damon made of Fuller and Luke "playing football."

To the aquarium

Yesterday, Greg's parents came up to visit and go to the aquarium with us. Greg got me a family membership to the aquarium for my birthday. Luke really enjoyed looking at the "fishies" and we had a wonderful time with Grampapa and Gramama.

Greg's mom also brought a whole bunch of clothes for Luke for his birthday. Today he had on one of the outfits. He heard me tell someone else that he got it for his birthday (which is not until Sept. 25th) and he started saying to everyone "Happy Birthday to you." Greg taught him that on my birthday and he loves to say it. Of course, I think it's absolutely adorably funny and cute.

Happy Birthday to me!

Greg made my birthday very special. He made me cards from the boys, complete with coloring from Luke and a handprint from Ben. He planned a surprise party where friends and family met us at Kanpai for dinner. I love Kanpai, but it's a sacrifice for Greg to take me there because while he enjoys the taste of the food, he doesn't so much like the way it makes him feel. Janet made a cake and the family came back to our house for cake and ice cream. Luke called to say Happy Birthday and then the family commenced with our Herron birthday tradition of telling the birthday boy/girl what they appreciate about them. It was all very nice and I feel special and loved! Click here to see Alli's pictures.

The grief dive-bomber hits

Tonight, I am missing my mom. My birthday looms and a couple wonderful moms at work have been so involved lately with their daughters having babies. One mom will be out tomorrow because her daughter will be giving birth, and the other one was out today to go to a doctor's appointment with her daughter for her grandson. I sure do wish my mom was around to do some of those things, and especially to be so emotionally involved in relationship with me and my children.

I have to thank the Lord for a wonderful sister, supportive friends, and stand-in moms who take her place in such amazing ways, but I still miss her lots.

The title is an allusion to C.S. Lewis' writings in A Grief Observed where he describes grief as a dive bomber that stays away for a while and then hits with great force all at once.

Luke's new bed

Luke is SOOOOO excited about his "new" bed. Greg took the crib rail off this weekend and put up the toddler bed rail. Luke can now climb in and out of his bed by himself. He's done fine at night staying in it, but this afternoon, I went in their room during naptime because Ben was crying and found Luke in Ben's crib with about four toys trying to make Ben play with them. That was a little frightening, because Luke has no sense that he shouldn't crawl right on top of Ben, kneel on him, whatever is necessary to accomplish his goal. I put the side of Ben's crib all the way, so hopefully that won't happen again!

Me and my boys

Luke is doing such a great job of feeling confident in the pool with his water wings on. What's scary is when he takes them off! Ben sat up by himself today for a few minutes -- that was a first. Can't wait until we can walk away and leave him there!

Ben is eating "solids" and sitting up

Well, Ben ate "solid" food today for the first time. It was hardly solid, just breast milk added to the rice cereal. Actually, more like having some rice cereal with his milk. He seemed to enjoy it well enough. He's also able to sit up by himself for a little while. We can't leave him and walk away yet, but he's getting better!

Word

So the latest meme sweeping the blogosphere is the One Word Meme. Alli tagged me, and this is my first meme ever.

1. Where is your cell phone? Dunno

2. Relationship? Sanctifiying

3. Your hair? Red

4. Work? part-time

5. Your sister? Awesome

6. Your favorite thing? Pool

7. Your dream last night? None

8. Your favorite drink? Vanillacoke

9. Your dream car? Paid

10. The room you’re in? TV

11. Your shoes? Teva

12. Your fears? Pain

13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Surrounded

14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Taylors

15. What are you not good at? Selling

16. Muffin? Chocolate

17. One of your wish list items? Babysitter

18. Where you grew up? Africa

19. Last thing you did? Pictures

20. What are you wearing? Shorts

21. What aren’t you wearing? Ring

22. Your pet? Cutest

23. Your computer? Addicted

24. Your life? Fulfilling

25. Your mood? Up

26. Missing? Husband

27. What are you thinking about right now? Approval

28. Your car? Van

29. Your kitchen? Outdated

30. Your summer? Short

31. Your favorite color? Eyes

32. Last time you laughed? Tonight?

33. Last time you cried? Today?

34. School? Finished!

35. Love? Unbelievable

I get to tag someone, so I pick Luc Herron, Lyds and Mama Cobb.

Ben rolled over to sleep on his tummy.

This afternoon, Ben rolled over to sleep on his tummy for the first time. He slept and slept too! I finally woke him up because I had put him down about 5:30 and at 8:00 he was still sleeping. I didn't want him to sleep through the night starting at 5:30, that's for darn sure!

Face Time

Can I tell you how awesome it feels to walk in the door from work and have my husband turn off the TV to talk to me!

Greg and I decided when we went to the Boathouse for our anniversary (yummy restaurant) that we would try to institute 10 minutes a day of "face time" now that I'm back at work, since we see each other so little on those days. We had a few rough days at first, because we didn’t have a set time for it, and I was asking him about when we could do it and he was getting annoyed. I imagine it felt somewhat like a parent reminding a child to complete their chores!

Heather had the brilliant idea to set a time. I had to e-mail Greg about that since I didn’t get to talk to him about it (the next time I would see him was the next day in the 30 minutes between when I got home from work and he left -- not great timing, and it would be the same for the next few days, which is why we needed this in the first place!) I didn’t have a chance for him to e-mail me back because the next day he turned off the TV at the time I suggested, we talked about other things first, and then talked a little more about the face time. It’s definitely better now and today it was so wonderful to walk in the door and have the TV go off and Greg seem to enjoy talking with me. I had no idea how much I was missing that time with him with this schedule of ours! Husbands, I highly recommend it, as I am a happy wife!

Matching Clothes

I've gotten kind of into matching clothes for my boys lately. Not really sure why. I just like it. I found a romper for Luke at a consignment sale that was just like one I had for Ben already. And, how can you go wrong with soccer!

Ben hates water and Luke couldn't love it more!

Ben has hated baths since the day he was born. For about five months, he screamed every time I put any part of him in water. Well, I thought we had gotten over that when I figured out how to do it slowly and a couple times since then, in the pool and tub, he's been okay for a little while. Tonight, he screamed bloody murder again when all I did was put his feet in (it wasn't too hot or too cold, I checked). He proceeded to cry the entire time while I was washing him. Poor kid. He's just going to have to get over that one day, I guess.

Meanwhile, Luke loves trying to swim with his water wings on. He has his mouth part way under water, looks and sounds like he's taking water in, but doesn't want help. He also likes to jump off the diving board. He'll do it now without even a hand to hold. Crazy child!

Luke and Sunday School

It's almost time for Luke to go to Sunday school! The new year of classes starts Sept. 2 and that's when they start actually have a LITTLE lesson during that time, so we're going to start taking Luke and going to Sunday school. Not looking forward to getting up earlier, but it's worth it.

Luke's Talking

Luke says the funniest things these days. He's into fixing things with his hammer, but it sounds more like "hanna, f_ck it." That's hard not to laugh at, but instead try to get him to say fix. He loves tunnels, and every time we get in the car, he claps and says, "yay, tunnel!" When we drive into our neighborhood he says, "omost home." It's so fun, all his talking these days.

A new name for my blog.

Okay, I have a new name for my blog. Thanks for all the suggestions, especially from Kaki. They helped me brainstorm. The new name is A Queen's Life. I chose this as it has lots of different possibilities in meaning. What does it mean? As Luke Herron would say, what does it mean to YOU? Just kidding, although you might have some other ideas about what it could mean! First of all, it means simply that my names are the names of former, famous queens, namely =) Queen Esther and Queen Elizabeth. Second, I am a queen, or at the very least a princess, as part of the bride of Christ. Third, I am a mother, which makes me a different kind of queen in that I am responsible for small subjects who must obey my every whim -- will I be a good queen, or an evil one? This blog is as much about my "subjects" as it is about me. And, I live the life of a queen compared to some people in the world (try Bundibugyo) and I want to be reminded to be grateful for that. Thank you, thank you.

New name search

I'm on the search for a new name for my blog. Any suggestions?

New Nephew!

As of 7 a.m. this morning, we have a new nephew! Daniel and Tasha had a little boy, weighing 7lb 14oz and named him Jude Campbell Herron. One of the cool things about that name is that he shares his middle name with his cousin who is closest in age to him (that would be Ben =). He's got hair like Daniel's, but Tasha's hair is actually a lot like Daniel's too, just not quite as curly.

Congrats, you guys! You can see more pics here:

http://web.mac.com/dtherron/iWeb/HerronHarbinger/Jude.html

The worst blogger is coming out.

Now you know why my blog is called blog of the worst blogger -- it's been a little while since I posted anything.

It's been a busy week because my parents have been in town, which was awesome. Luke, Ben, and I pretty much hung out with Dad or Dad and Gini every evening since my Dad arrived, which was last Saturday.

Ben was baptized on Sunday. Greg's dad did the baptism. His words and prayer were so sweet, I ALMOST cried. I did have a few tears and had to wipe my eyes. It was so special. The only thing was that Lydia couldn't be here, because she's in Uganda.

Now I'm watching my current favorite TV show -- So You Think You Can Dance.

Night, night!

The best thing about being a teacher . . .

Yesterday we went to the Creative Discovery Museum with my friend Alli and her son Fuller. Luke really enjoyed it and I was surprised at how many things they had that he could enjoy. He played in water and sand, danced and played the piano, smashed clay, pushed lots of buttons, blew bubbles, put balls in their holes, plus more.

As if that wasn't enough fun, we then went to the water pools between the two aquariums and let the boys enjoy the water, which Luke ALSO loved, of course, being a water baby as he is.

Then, today, we went with Heather and Jonas to the Tennessee Riverpark and walked and played on the playground. It was all great fun! I love summer!

Ben's Baptism

Ben is going to be baptized on July 8th, it's official. It will be at our church at the 11am service.

Also, tomorrow, Wednesday, pray for me. The Mormon missionaries that were supposed to come to my house last week rescheduled to this week and they are coming at 6pm. So, again, pray for me. I'm hoping to be used by the Lord to at least plant a good seed in their hearts.

Enjoying Gini in town

My stepmom Gini is in town for a few weeks selling my parents' house. Luke is really enjoying it. When he went down for a nap today she was at our house, and when he woke up he grabbed his little Spanish soccer ball and went running out to the living room saying "Ganma!" and then sad, "Ganma." It's so fun to see how they pick up on small cues and understand that Grandma and Grandpa are important people.

So, we went over to Grandma's house to continue help cleaning out stuff in storage. Then we were going to stop by his friend Fuller's house to drop off some coke points and what do you know, they were on their way to the playground in St. Elmo (across the street from their house), so we went too. While we were at the park, it started raining, which Luke loves. We went home, since it was raining, and the whole way home, Luke was saying "Pease, running" which can be translated to "Please, can I get out in the rain?"

Kids are fun.

Greg's 32nd Birthday

Greg's party was so much fun! We had a small crowd and lots of kids. Greg had to cook our food, but he's the best at that, so he wouldn't have enjoyed his steak nearly as much if he hadn't cooked it.

And I have to say, I have the best friends and family. I could NOT have done it without their help. Everyone helped out so much, from Heather decorating, and basically taking charge of the cake and brownies, to Peter cutting the watermelon without being asked, to Alli watching Jonas and helping with other little things. I really enjoyed myself.

I did make a total mess out of the brownies when I tried to use the mixer. I sprayed egg and brownie mix everywhere. And then, the candles were put into the brownies before they were cool and it was hilarious! They melted and fell over, and then once they were lit, dripped all over the brownies. We had to pick out pieces of wax as we ate.

Prayer request to be missionaries to the Mormon missionaries.

We're having Mormon missionaries for dinner on Wednesday night. Pray for us to be filled with the Spirit and bold in sharing our faith. Greg has to work, but Peter and Janet will be here.

So, the croup is still hanging out at our house. It's supposed to last 3-4 days, but poor Ben is still sick, a week later. The worst and most stressful part is that we're not supposed to let him cry. Normally, when I put him to bed, he cries for a few minutes before he goes to sleep. It's just about impossible to get him to stay asleep any other way! I've tried everything I can think of, but as soon as I move him, he wakes back up. And, he doesn't sleep as well, or as long anywhere else besides a bed.

At night too, he's been waking up and I've been laying with him in bed on my chest and he just cries and cries. Last night, we may have had some sort of a breakthrough. I didn't try to hold him, when he cried, I just had him in the bassinet and pulled it right up close to my bed, so I could hold his pacifier in his mouth. That worked last night. We'll see if it works again.

Pray for us. We're all exhausted, except Luke, thank goodness.

Why NOT to go by yourself to the emergency room

Cat's out of the bag with that title. We went the emergency room at the children's hospital last night. Ben has croup. It really wasn't too bad a visit -- about three hours from my front door back to my front door. Hopefully, we won't have to go back, but they said croup is common with babies who were intubated.

Really the worst part was being there alone, and the ONLY reason that was so bad was that I had the taste of garlic in my mouth from Alli's Tastefully Simple part that I went to and I wanted a drink SOOOOO bad, but there was no one to help me get one. I couldn't leave Ben in the room, but I couldn't take him and have no one be there when the doctor came. Plus, I only had a 20, or I would've gotten a drink on the way in.

Anyway, that was our exciting night. Got home at 2am. Am now appropriately tired.

To be [honest] or not to be [a savvy shopper], that is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous store return policies or to return items without full disclosure and get back more than you paid for them.

1) I returned an item to Wal-mart which I had originally bought on clearance at Target. Target has very stringent return policies and I did not have a receipt, so I thought I'd try Wal-mart. Before I knew what was happening, the Wal-mart customer service clerk had given me double the amount I paid for the item at Target.

2) I bought some shirts at JCPenney with a coupon for $10 off, but had to exchange one of them. On my way in, the clerk checked the price on the shirt and told me I could pick out something for the same price as the price tag on the shirt I was returning. When I got back up to the counter with my exchange, she asked if I had a receipt, which I first lied and said no and then said I did (acting, of course, like I'd forgotten). After looking at my receipt she informed me that I could only exchange for an item half the cost of the price tag on the original item, because of my coupon, which in effect meant I lost the coupon discount when I exchanged for the new shirt.

This frustrates me: I want to get the most for my money, but I also want to please the Lord. I'm thankful that he convicted me while I was at the counter at JCPenney, so I didn't have to go back to the store and show them my receipt at a later date, because I knew I'd done wrong.

What would you do?

Greg is off.

Greg is off today and tomorrow. It's so nice because we get to spend some time together. Tonight, we actually ate dinner at the table, and then, once the kids were asleep we had a little time without TV, just went outside. That was nice.

Next Monday is Greg's birthday. He will be off! We are either going to Atlanta, or having people over to our house here for dinner. I'm trying to decide what to do. Any suggestions?

I love my kids. They're cute!

"It"

Vanilla Coke is back! Alli guessed correctly. I bought her one, but since she didn't want it, I was forced to drink it myself =).

"It"

This is a piece of "it". Another hint: it's not something personal. Anyone could get it.

A Friend's Birthday Party

We went to Elias' birthday party today. His mom is a good friend of mine (and Peter too). He was turning one. It was really fun to watch Luke run around and play with all the other kids. He had a ball, chasing the ball. And there was a little puppy in the yard behind which would come up to the fence wagging his tail wildly and then run away when Luke got close. Luke thought it was hilarious. He said "sunny!" which is how he says "funny." I think it's so cute when he says that, I guess just because he's being more abstract than simply pointing out and naming an object. Another funny thing he says: every time I say something about "Uncle Peter," Luke says "Janet." I guess we know who HE thinks is worth mentioning.

When we stopped on our way home and I went to get Luke out of the car, he had a little rubber snake on his chest, which freaked me out, because I didn't know he had one! When I first saw it I thought immediately it was a toy, but then I thought, "where did he get a toy snake?!?! Is it real!?!?!? OHhhh, it came out of his goody bag from the party.

Also, today Luke figured out how to put all the pieces into one of those wooden puzzles with the animal cutouts all by himself. Then he wanted to try another one when we were picking one out for Elias and he did that one all by himself too. He wanted to carry it around all day, but kept dropping the pieces out and getting upset. He was later able to put all the pieces in the correct place in the shape sorter at another friend's house and kept emptying it out and putting them back in again and again. It was almost like something "clicked" in his brain today, which was fun to see.

In reference to "It"

In reference to "it," which I posted the other day -- I am not pregnant! It's not nearly that serious! It'something really little that I'm excited about because it was gone and now it's back. Seriously, would I give you a baby if that was it and you guessed it right? No! (I said I'd give one to whoever guessed it right.) Another hint, I'm cheap, so if I'm giving one away, it can't be something expensive. So, guess again.

Luke at P&J's wedding

"It"

It's back! I'm so excited! If you can guess what I'm talking about, I'll give you one (except Greg -- I already told him.)

Tough week, but the Lord is good.

Last week was kind of a tough week. We got back from my grandfather's funeral in South Carolina to find out that the baby of Greg's good friend had died from SIDS. It was very sad for us -- Benson was born Feb. 13, just 5 days before Ben was actually due. The parents, Eddie and Sarah were so amazing in their response. At the funeral, they both spoke, which in itself was amazing. But, even more than that, Sarah talked about how God had given her a peace that she wasn't missing out on anything in Benson's life, but that God had given him exactly the number of days he was supposed to have. Eddie talked about how he would give up anything to have his son back, highlighting God's amazing love for us, to CHOOSE to give up his son, for US! When I went to greet Sarah after the service, I could not help but cry, and it was like she was comforting me, telling me how we needed to get together and they had been thinking about us. I pray that the Lord would continue to uphold them, and use us to do that if he should see fit.

The contrast between Benson's and Kuka's funerals was interesting as well. Both were the funerals of believers and believers' families, so the Lord was honored throughout, but the mood was so different. Kuka's funeral was bittersweet, sadness in missing him, but joy that he went home to be with Jesus and lived such a long and full life -- he was going to be 90 this December! Benson's funeral had a certain sweetness, but sorrow was also evident throughout -- an appropriate response, of course. The sweetness was in knowing God's love and comfort, and the sorrow . . . well, that's obvious.

Kuka's Funeral

Kuka's funeral was really wonderful. He really wanted God to be honored rather than himself, and that was truly what happened. They even succeeded in focusing my attention on the Lord and what he's done for me and my family, which is pretty amazing, because I have a pretty hard heart. Uncle Dave read a eulogy about Kuka, which was basically the main events of his life, and Aunt Ruth read a letter from Kuka's sister, Betty Van Wechel, who could be there, but said that she knew Kuka must have faults, she just didn't know what any of them were. It really came out that he was a man who desired to please God more than anything else in his life.

It was also a very formal service. The church Kuka went to and loved, where they also loved him, is a small PCA church that uses an organ, piano, and hymns. It was different than what we're used to at this point, but the Lord was definitely lifted up. At one point I thought it would have been nice if they had asked Peter to sing, but then I realized that the type of music they would be doing would not be the type that he would normally sing and may not suit his voice all that well.

One of Tot's granddaughters really loved Kuka and she had a hard time with losing him. She may not have gotten to see him after his stroke either, which probably made it harder for her in certain ways as she didn't see him suffering as much as others of us that had seen him since the stroke. Another thing I appreciated was that Joel Belz and his wife came down from Asheville. The reactions of all of these people to his death was very heartfelt and special to me -- made me feel like he was loved and will be remembered.